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do we have to pre-book hotels in germany/austria in june/july

Hi everyone, my husband and I are doing a road trip of germany and austria starting on the 25th june in Frankfurt and ending on 13th July. My husband and I like to wing it when travelling because we dont want to have to be at a certain place at a certain time and we may like to stay longer in one place and shorter in another. I have prebooked frankfurt and berlin but wondering if it is necessary to book Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg and towns along the rhine. It is mostly the Rhine that i am concerned about as we will be doing the trip in peak season.

Has anyone done this sort of trip in peak season?? Do you think we will be ok to just wing it in peak season?

if you plan to spend weekends along the Rhine between FRA and Koblenze during this time frame, it can get quite full. And you can usually get the best value by pre-booking and save the time spent time traipsing to the TI every day. We have found that rooms are generally easier to find in big cities on weekends and small towns during the week. I assume you are driving and will return the car to FRA. Don't forget the sticker needed to travel the autobahns in Austria.

My stock answer to this sort of question is that if you are just a couple [ie no kids in tow] travelling by car, and out of high season/outside main cities, it shouldn't be a problem.

sadly you fall at the last 2 fences - high season, AND many big tourist centres/areas.
in these circumstances, i would prebook the whole trip. [and try to find places with secure parking too, especially in Prague - some hire companies don't even like you taking their cars into the Czech republic]

I'm Austrian and I wouldn't recommend you to pre-book hotels because you are flexible by car. If I were you I would stay in cosy "pensionen"- that is what we call it.

You can find them everywhere but mostly a bit outside the cities. "Pensionen" are tiny hotels that are predominatley family-run and therefore really lovely. If you want to get in contact with the local culture and people then stay in such accomodations.

To me the answer depends on the size of the city. In the villages you can probably wing it. In the cities it could be a headache to find a place and I hate to waste my valuable vacation time looking for a hotel.

You might consider keeping some of your time (when you are in more rural areas) open but call ahead the day before. Otherwise you have to be very flexible about your room standards and your budget.

If you aren't from the EU, Austrian law also requires an international driving permit. If you're in the USA, you get it at AAA for about $15. You need 2 passport size photos--AAA will take the photos for an additional charge if you want. Usually takes me about 20 minutes. You still have to carry your regular driving license.

The vignette actually costs about 8 euros for 10 days. You need it if you will drive on motorways or expressways numbered with an Austrian A or S prefix. Careful, some roads will also have an "E" prefix route number (for major roads that cross international borders)--it will also have an Austrian route number that might start with A or S.

Yostwl, we always take an international driving permit with us. We are aussies and I am surprised that the australian car rental company didnt tell us about the Vignettes for travelling on austrian autobahns. I only discovered this site a few days ago and i have learnt so much!!

I would like to weigh in another item.
In general, any off-peak season trade fairs have a far more relevant impact on the availability of hotel rooms than the usual summer tourism. What you will (probably) lose is the opportunity to stay in more upscale hotels for less money because you booked ahead.

As you will be going by car, your requirements for accomodation differ from those who did that trip by train or plane.
Most hotels recommended here focus on the car-less tourist, i.e. are located in the historic city centers, require to drive all way into town, have lousy or expensive parking options.

For example:
When you will drive from Dresden to Prague, your routing will probably lets you arrive from the North or Northwest.
It will be much easier to find a place more or less within that part of town then to drive all way into town because someone recommended a quaint boutique hotel in the historic old town district, in a maze of one-way streets, and next parking costing €25 a day.
In addition, maybe recommendations here at Fodor's gravitate to the same half dozen hotels in cities like Vienna or Prague which have hundreds of hotels, pensionen and B&Bs. Most of those are more on the quaint and cosy (i.e. small) side, so these can indeed fill up very easily. But it says nothing about the hotel situation in general.

What I would do is to use a big hotel website like booking.com
Put in an approximate date of your stay.
When you click on the map, you will see all hotels.
Adjust the map to that part of Prague which you will hit first coming from Dresden. So you can see what accomodation you will find in that area and get a rough idea where hotels will be located. And if there is public transport available.

Along the Rhine, you may find the handful of famous small towns along the river pretty crowded. But lots of that is local day tripping. In addition, you will always find a place to stay if you just drove a few kms into the river's hinterland. It's by no means comparable to the situation of Munich during Oktoberfest where you will have a hard time finding any available room.

Hi Cowboy, what you say makes a LOT of sense. We are not going to pre-book along the rhine and possibly Prague and Austria from what others and yourself have said. I agree with you about hotels right in the centre of the city with ridiculously excessive parking fees but unfortunately i am partially disabled and to get a hotel out of the city centre and then take public transport into the town, is something i cant do. I am not in a wheelchair but use a walker (a wheelchair would be a lot easier for me, but i am not ready for that yet) So we try to find hotels close to everything and usually within walking distance of attractions. Yes, we still could park away from the city centre and then drive in to the attractions but doing that every day would give me a heart attack. I know what european streets are like, we have done it before. Mazes of narrow cobblestone streets that sometimes i think we should not be driving on but noone seems to care so obviously we are allowed. I am lucky that my husband is an excellent driver, has no fear and should join a precision driving team. LOL. The things he has done just amaze me. We have been in many tight spots but he always manages to get us out of them without a scratch. He once reversed up a cobblestoned street that was so narrow, the walls were right next to us. It was a dead end street. So, having said all that i would prefer to park the car in the hotel and just walk around or use the hop on, hop off bus. (those buses i can use so far) And no heart attacks for me!.

Our story--But that was in a different decade and besides...
I mean, it was in a different decade--1988--and in an area you don't specifically mention--German Bavaria--but here's our story:

In mid-July we headed out of Frankfurt--the Romantic Road through Munich and Bavaria, to Salzburg and Zurich, Fussen and through the Black Forest back to Frankfurt. We had reservations everywhere except for 2 nights in the Bavarian region. We ended up in Königsee, Berchtesgaden, on a Friday afternoon--along with many many others. Oops, school vacations just begun or something. No room in any of the first few places hubby went in. So we just started winding around a road stopping at pensionen--I'd run in and use up basically 90% of my German vocabulary--Haben Sie ein Zimmer mit Bad? over and over. I think I went in 4 or 5 and finally found one. It was small but charming and sparkling with a view to take our breaths away--except we didn't have any breath left because of the anxiety of the search!

I've never been comfortable winging it since, especially not in a foreign country during what is probably a peak vacation time. I do understand about the wanting to have some freedom to change your mind; probably 98% of the time reservations I make have a cancellation policy that allows for that a little. I know some accomodations are non-refundable and some have more than 24 hour notice required, so it's not totally flexible. But I think you travel somewhat like we do, packing in a lot in your days. But that's also why I like to pre-book, so that we don't have to spend any of that precious time looking for rooms in an already busy day.

Hi texasbookworm, we have had a few times also where we have had to keep on driving into the night to find a place to stay but eventually we have always found one. And thank goodness that in the UK and france it doesnt get dark till about 10pm, so another reason we werent worried.

Yes, we pack a lot into our days, thats for sure, and each day around 5pm i would get that little anxious feeling of having to find a place for the night but we always found one and sometimes immediately and it its a great hotel in a great part of town, we stayed longer. So, its worth it to wing it. I have all of our american trip booked as we are going to specific places but in europe after we leave Prague, i am not sure which way we will turn, LOL. I guess, wherever the wind, the scenery or the interest takes us. But its only 8 nights we are concerned with until we head to frankfurt to fly to NYC.

2 years ago, we winged it for 4 weeks in England, Scotland and Ireland and only had a very small problem once in Ireland. But we still got a place for the night and that was in June. July in europe and along the rhine could be a different matter. We will see.

Rushngal, How did winging it work out for you? We were planning to do that as well from Aug 26th to Sept 7th and are taking the rail throughout Germany. We have place for when we get there but kind of hoped to just book when we got to places or maybe a day in advance. Thanks.

hi branst, sorry, i am late in replying but we only winged it a few times in germany and it was easy. i would have liked to have told you that it would be very easy for you to wing it as you are going in off season. we had a great time and i am sure you did to.